Experimental Investigation of a Three-Layer Oscillating Heat Pipe

An experimental investigation of a compact, triple-layer oscillating heat pipe (OHP) has been conducted to determine the channel layer effect on the heat transport capability in an OHP. The OHP has dimensions 13 mm thick, 229 mm long, and 76 mm wide embedded with two-independent closed loops forming three layers of channels. The unique design of the investigated OHP can be readily used to explore the channel layering effect on the heat transport capability in the OHP. The experimental results show that the addition of channel layers can increase the total power and at the same time, it can increase the effective thermal conductivity of the OHP. When the OHP switches from one layer of channels to two layers of channels, the highest effective thermal conductivity can be increased from 5760 W/mK to 26,560 W/mK. At the same time, the dryout limit can be increased. With three layers of channels, the OHP investigated herein can transport a power up to 8 kW with a heat flux level of 103 W/cm2 achieving an effective thermal conductivity of 33,170 W/mK.